7 Benefits of reusable jute or hemp shopping bags

In the whole world over one trillion single use plastic bags are produced and used each year. Less than one percent are recycled and many end up as litter polluting our environment. The bags then wash into rivers and oceans being mistaken for food and killing animals. Plastic bags are photodegradable breaking up into finer and finer particles which are ingested by krill. The plastic polymers then bioaccumulate up the food chain.

In Australia there are 7 billion single use plastic bags used each day. Luckily some states around the world like South Australia and France are legislating to reduce and eliminate the use of these environmentally harmful products. However if your government is not acting fast enough to reduce the number of plastic bags used it is your responsibility to do something about it.

What can you do?

You can get some reusable, sustainably produced just or hemp bags and say “No bag thanks! I’ve brought my own.”

There are a couple of videos at the end of this blog post that explain the problem of single use plastic bags and solutions.Check out PPB- Post Plastic Bag on facebook

Here are the 7 benefits of reusable jute or hemp shopping bags.

Reuseable

Stronger

Less Litter

They biodegrade not photodegrade

Sustainably produced

Less plastic bags are used

Supports local enterprises

For the BONUS BENEFIT watch my video or read to the end of this article.

1 Reusable

The are reusable so you can use them over and over again. However most polythene bags are only used once and then discarded which encourages waste and overconsumption.

2 Stronger

Hemp and jute are stronger than plastic bags so they don’t break.

3 Less litter

People are unlikely to litter a reusable bag because it is reusable unlike single use plastic bags which are by definition designed to be discarded after on use. For this reason some people discard them as litter into the environment. In the environment they get eaten by turtles, fish and other animals which then die from starvation.

4 Biodegradable and not photodegradable.

Biodegradable bags break down in the environment into their organic components of carbon dioxide. Photodegradable plastic breaks up into finer and finer particles of the original product. This leaves a toxic leachate that then bioaccumulates up the food chain.

5 Produced from sustainable crops.

They can be made from sustainably produced crops like hemp instead of petrochemicals. Using hemp like products encourages the adoption of a sustainable cellulose industries. However plastic products are a by product of the oil industry which is a damaging industry.

6 Reduce the number of plastic bags used.

7 Reusable bags can be made locally

This gives people entrepreneurial opportunities as opposed to supporting globalised petrochemical corporations.

The BONUS BENEFIT Vegetables stored in plastic bags sweat, go soggy and rotten quickly but in hemp bags they don’t.

Here is a video that explains about ending our addiction to plastic bags.

James’ Blue House Free Schools

About the project

Based on the collective knowledge storytelling paradigm of the indigenous ancestors, our community classes are by taught by volunteers where anyone can be both a teacher and a student and when we all work together we can collectively create a healthy future for all people, living things and the planet.